John Dean is the President and CEO of Central Pacific Bank, a Hawai'i-based financial institution with $4.2 billion in assets. Founded by a small group of World War II veterans in 1954 to help immigrant families build a life away from the plantations, the bank has grown to serve the financial needs of all families and small businesses in the Islands. John is also Managing General Partner of Startup Capital Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based venture fund. He has 20 years of experience as CEO of five financial services companies. From 1993 to 2001, he served as the CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, a leading provider of financial services to early-stage technology companies and venture capital firms. John grew Silicon Valley Bank's market capitalization from $65 million in 1993 to over $3 billion in 2000. Also, he led the creation of the company's own venture investment business, with the launch of the company's first two venture capital funds in 2000. This included a $150 million fund of funds, and a $65 million direct equity fund. In 1997, Business Week recognized John as one of Silicon Valley's top 25 "movers and shakers" and, in 2001, Forbes ranked him as one of the "50 most powerful dealmakers." In 2001, Fortune ranked Silicon Valley Bank, under John's leadership, among the "100 Fastest-Growing Companies" based on growth in revenues, earnings per share, and total market return over three years.
John also has many years of experience investing in technology companies. He has served as Managing Director of Tuputele Ventures Fund, LLC, a small private equity fund investing in early-stage technology companies and venture capital funds. He is an investment director for various venture capital firms, both in the U.S. and overseas, including Advanced Technology Venture (ATV), Institutional Venture Fund (IVP), Walden International, Leapfrog Ventures, and Authosis Capital. John serves as an advisor or director of various technology companies, including EzRez Software, H-5 Technologies, and BioImagene. John was a founding director of the Entrepreneurs Foundation in Silicon Valley and for a six-month period during 2001-2002, was its interim CEO.
Bennett Wo is a Vice President of C.S. Wo & Sons, where his responsibilities include asset management, alternative investments, and internet applications. As a founding partner of Wo Capital Group, he oversees investments in private equity and venture capital.
He is also managing partner of BJM Properties, a real estate development fund, BJM Partners, a fund which invests in early-stage Hawai'i companies, and The Wo Private Equity Fund, a fund which invests globally in private equity.
Prior responsibilities at C.S. Wo included managing the company's restaurant supply subsidiary (American Restaurant Supply), the furniture operations division, and the bedding division.
Bennett sits on the board of directors of the Hawai'i Angels, Hawai'i Venture Group, Pacific Venture Capital, Punahou Alumni Association, and the Honolulu Symphony. He graduated from Punahou School, and earned engineering degrees from Stanford University and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management.
Leigh-Ann is Vice President of DragonBridge Capital, LLC, a merchant bank that helps Chinese technology, life sciences, and clean tech companies with capital formation, joint ventures, M&A, venture capital, and other private equity needs. She also has more than 10 years of experience in the nonprofit sector. She was formerly Executive Director of HiBEAM, an accelerator for early stage Hawai`i technology companies. She was the founding Program Director of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies in Washington, D.C. as well as the Washington, D.C. lobbyist for the Japanese American Citizens League.
Previously, Leigh-Ann was an attorney concentrating on commercial and other civil litigation. She was counsel to Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing in Honolulu, of counsel to Fujiyama, Duffy & Fujiyama in Honolulu, and a partner in Erickson, Beasley & Hewitt in San Francisco (now Erickson, Beasley, Hewitt & Wilson in Oakland). She is a graduate of Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall).
Susan Yamada is the Executive Director of the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship & E-Business at the Shidler College of Business, University of Hawai'i at Manoa. Previously, she spent 17 years working in senior management positions at various entrepreneurial start-up companies in California and Hawai'i. In Silicon Valley, she served as CEO and publisher of Upside Magazine, the first business magazine focused exclusively on serving the informational needs of technology executives. Under Susan's leadership, the company successfully diversified its interests to include online and book publishing, as well as the production of executive conferences.
In 1998, Susan founded TRUSTe, the first online privacy seal program to protect personal information on the Internet, and served on the management team for VEO Systems, a business-to-business software developer that was eventually sold to Commerce One in 1999. Since returning home to Hawai'i in 2000, Susan launched Get2Hawaii, a developer of web-based software that enables travel inventory to be bought and sold online. She also heads the Yamada Scott Family Foundation. The Foundation has awarded $300,000 to students and community organizations since 2000. Susan currently serves on the board of directors for several community organizations including the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii and KCAA Preschools.
Susan received her bachelor of business administration in travel from the University of Hawai'i College of Business and her MBA from San Jose State University in California.
Bee Leng Chua, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of HiBEAM, an accelerator for early stage Hawai'i technology companies. Bee Leng was the first executive director of the Entrepreneurship Center in the College of Business Administration at Hawaii Pacific University where she launched the school's business plan competition, the Stanford Innovation Tournament @ HPU and the Pappas Entrepreneurial Leadership Series.
Bee Leng was the founding director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship and faculty member at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She also served on the Advisory and Vetting Committees of the Hong Kong Government's Cyberport IncuTrain Centre (www.cyberport.hk), as a mentor in the Incubation Centre of the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks and as an assessor with the Small Entrepreneur Research Assistance Programme (SERAP), Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC), in the Hong Kong Government.
Bee Leng received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Ohio University. Originally from Singapore, Bee Leng lived and worked in Hong Kong for 18 years before coming to Hawai'i in 2007.
Kent Anderson is the Housing Development Director for the Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, where he is responsible for planning and developing affordable housing in Hawai'i. Kent was formerly Executive Director of Family Promise of Hawai'i. He has 10 years of managerial experience in the nonprofit and private sectors and helped launch the organization in 2006. Over 80% of the guest families of Family Promise of Hawai'i transition from homelessness to sustainable housing, usually in 3-4 months. Kent served as 2007 volunteer Chair of Partners in Care, O'ahu's coalition of homeless social service providers. Family Promise of Hawai'i was a finalist for the Pacific Business News 2009 Nonprofit of the Year Award.
Kent has specialized in economic development, strategic planning, and performance-based management. Each organization under his direction operated within budget and significantly improved key metrics. Kent has been a guest speaker at national conferences for community building and mentoring. He has also worked for governmental organizations such as the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Peace Corps, Americorps, and the Florida Department of Health.
Tim Dick is CEO of Adama Materials, a developer of nanotechnology-based advanced materials, and a Partner at Startup Capital Ventures of Palo Alto. A serial entrepreneur, Tim founded Hawaii Superferry, Grassroots.com (acquired by Edelman), WorldPages.com (NYSE:WPZ, then acquired by BT). He was also the first investor in match.com (NASDAQ:IACI) and Accept.com (acquired by Amazon). Tim believes in social responsibility and has an energy conservation foundation - usehalf.org. He is also an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at the University of Hawai'i. He co-founded TRUSTe.org, which is the Internet's privacy standard, and is a founding Board Member of Reef Check Hawaii and an active member of the Hawaii Venture Capital Association.
Previously, Tim was a principal at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where he led CEO-level strategy consulting work in high-technology, transportation, and energy industries. He was formerly an electrical engineer at Beckman Instruments, where he developed the first electronic speech synthesizer for use in intensive care units, and the world's first medical and scientific instrument-on-a-chip.
Peter Kay is commonly recognized as the voice of "Your Computer Minute" on the radio. He is the President of CyberCom, Inc., a high-tech management consulting firm. His personal mission is to lead technology-leveraged transformation in corporations, governments, and individuals and he has been doing so in Hawai`i since 1984 by founding 6 different tech-related companies.
Peter built the first commercial Web site in Hawai`i as well as the initial site for most of the local blue-chip firms. His most recent liquidity event sold an IP portfolio including patents on email privacy technology licensed in 4 countries in 2 languages. Peter was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young and he has won numerous awards in Pacific Business News. He has appeared on the cover of Midweek and twice on Hawaii Business magazine. Peter's unique understanding of how the business, technology, and human factor overlap brings a fresh perspective that takes on today’s challenges.
Alan Oshima is Executive Vice President - Corporate and Community Advancement at Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc., where he is focused on the company's goal of being a recognized leader in improving the economic well-being of the state and benefitting its communities. He attended public schools in Honolulu, Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, California. Between college and law school, he served as a Supply Corps officer in the US Navy for four years. He returned to Honolulu to practice law in 1976. Alan served as the lead Hawai`i regulatory counsel to The Carlyle Group in its acquisition of Verizon Hawaii in 2005.
He left private practice to join Hawaiian Telcom as its Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. In that role, he also became responsible for overseeing many of the administrative functions of the Company. In 2008, he became the Senior Advisor to Hawaiian Telcom and served on its Board of Directors until the company emerged from reorganization in late 2010. He was previously on the Board of Hawaiian Electric Company and has served the community on behalf of youth, public schools, early childhood development, public policy and economic development. He was the chair of the board of the YMCA of Honolulu, is currently the chair of its Emeritus Board, was one of the founders and is the current chair of Hawaii 3Rs, serves as a director of the non-partisan Hawaii public policy think tank, the Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs, is a member of the advisory board of The Learning Coalition, and was the co-chair of the speakers' bureau for the Hawaii's Children First campaign to pass the constitutional amendment for the appointed school board.
Dutch-born Henk Rogers is known internationally as a leader in the highly competitive electronic video game industry. After his studies in computer science and game theory at the University of Hawaii, Henk embarked on a highly successful career in Japan where he designed and programmed that country's first role-playing game, The Black Onyx, in the early 1980s. He is probably best known for his role in helping make Tetris the world's most popular video game after he built a strong relationship with the game's Soviet creator and won the distribution rights.
A serial entrepreneur, Henk moved to Hawaii in the 1990s and has formed several companies here, including Blue Planet Software, which manages the intellectual property rights to Tetris. Henk recently formed the Blue Planet Foundation with a mission to change the world's energy culture, raise global awareness of the imperative to implement clean renewable energy, and address the increasingly urgent climate crisis.
Bennett Wo is a Vice President of C.S. Wo & Sons, where his responsibilities include asset management, alternative investments, and internet applications. As a founding partner of Wo Capital Group, he oversees investments in private equity and venture capital.
Susan Yamada is the Executive Director of the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship & E-Business at the Shidler College of Business, University of Hawai'i at Manoa. Previously, she spent 17 years working in senior management positions at various entrepreneurial start-up companies in California and Hawai'i. In Silicon Valley, she served as CEO and publisher of Upside Magazine, the first business magazine focused exclusively on serving the informational needs of technology executives. Under Susan's leadership, the company successfully diversified its interests to include online and book publishing, as well as the production of executive conferences.
Bee Leng Chua, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of HiBEAM, an accelerator for early stage Hawai'i technology companies. Bee Leng was the first executive director of the Entrepreneurship Center in the College of Business Administration at Hawaii Pacific University where she launched the school's business plan competition, the Stanford Innovation Tournament @ HPU and the Pappas Entrepreneurial Leadership Series.
Kent Anderson is the Housing Development Director for the Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, where he is responsible for planning and developing affordable housing in Hawai'i. Kent was formerly Executive Director of Family Promise of Hawai'i. He has 10 years of managerial experience in the nonprofit and private sectors and helped launch the organization in 2006. Over 80% of the guest families of Family Promise of Hawai'i transition from homelessness to sustainable housing, usually in 3-4 months. Kent served as 2007 volunteer Chair of Partners in Care, O'ahu's coalition of homeless social service providers. Family Promise of Hawai'i was a finalist for the Pacific Business News 2009 Nonprofit of the Year Award.
Tim Dick is CEO of Adama Materials, a developer of nanotechnology-based advanced materials, and a Partner at Startup Capital Ventures of Palo Alto. A serial entrepreneur, Tim founded Hawaii Superferry, Grassroots.com (acquired by Edelman), WorldPages.com (NYSE:WPZ, then acquired by BT). He was also the first investor in match.com (NASDAQ:IACI) and Accept.com (acquired by Amazon). Tim believes in social responsibility and has an energy conservation foundation - usehalf.org. He is also an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at the University of Hawai'i. He co-founded TRUSTe.org, which is the Internet's privacy standard, and is a founding Board Member of Reef Check Hawaii and an active member of the Hawaii Venture Capital Association.
Peter Kay is commonly recognized as the voice of "Your Computer Minute" on the radio. He is the President of CyberCom, Inc., a high-tech management consulting firm. His personal mission is to lead technology-leveraged transformation in corporations, governments, and individuals and he has been doing so in Hawai`i since 1984 by founding 6 different tech-related companies.
Alan Oshima is Executive Vice President - Corporate and Community Advancement at Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc., where he is focused on the company's goal of being a recognized leader in improving the economic well-being of the state and benefitting its communities. He attended public schools in Honolulu, Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, California. Between college and law school, he served as a Supply Corps officer in the US Navy for four years. He returned to Honolulu to practice law in 1976. Alan served as the lead Hawai`i regulatory counsel to The Carlyle Group in its acquisition of Verizon Hawaii in 2005.
Dutch-born Henk Rogers is known internationally as a leader in the highly competitive electronic video game industry. After his studies in computer science and game theory at the University of Hawaii, Henk embarked on a highly successful career in Japan where he designed and programmed that country's first role-playing game, The Black Onyx, in the early 1980s. He is probably best known for his role in helping make Tetris the world's most popular video game after he built a strong relationship with the game's Soviet creator and won the distribution rights.